Autumn had taken over the northern landscape that surrounded the cottage. It was October and nearly two months had passed since Jack and Gregory had been taken, nearly two months that Bethany, Andie and their host of contacts had been hunting the Imperial Cult, and nearly two months since Cara had met Daniel.

Not much had changed in Daniel's situation in that time, unfortunately, but there were a few improvements. He changed back to a human with more ease, managing to do so nearly every day and remaining a human for much longer now. Cara was sure to take advantage of that time, talking, filling him in on all that had happened in the world over the years. She told him about the presidents that had filed through the oval office, the bad, the good, and the truly horrendous. She told him about the end to the Cold War and the wall coming down. She told him about 9/11 and the un-winnable war on terror that followed. She told him about with musicians that had died: David Bowie, Prince, Michael Jackson (she also shared with him the scandals on the latter). Cara also played music for him on a cheap CD player she had picked up, along with some CDs, on one of her rare runs out to the super centre. She tried to catch him up on the eras he'd missed, trying to share with him the rise of hip-hop and rap, the boy bands and pop stars, and most importantly in her mind, the grunge music of the 90s. She played Nirvana for him, and told him the tragedy of Kirk Cobain's death.

"Not many have made it out alive in recent decades," Daniel said as he listened to Cara's stories while "Come as you are" played in the background.

"Not many of the good ones, no," Cara agreed. "We still have two Beatles though."

"Thank the lord for small mercies." They laughed. They laughed quite a bit together Cara found, despite the shitty situation they found themselves in. The bars between them were a constant reminder of reality, but after a little time spent talking, that seemed to fade away, if only for a little while. She would look at him and hear his voice and not even see the bars there, just his kind face.

Until the wolf reasserted control.

Cara feared that she would lose him again for a couple weeks as the new moon passed and that light in the night sky grew stronger, but she didn't. She could see the struggle as Daniel fought to remain human, but he did manage it. They didn't have a way to permanently cure him yet, despite all of Logan's readings (Cara worried he was running out of steam, the ability to focus on the words in front of him shrinking each day), but Daniel was fighting hard and regaining control over his own body. It wasn't perfect by a long stretch, but it gave Cara hope.

Hope was something she greatly lacked when she turned her mind towards anything else. She hadn't been able to get in touch with Jack again, couldn't even summon up a vague image of him. It felt like he was slipping away. And what could she do about it? She had abandoned her daily meditations by the water, they frustrated more than calmed her now. Instead she had changed her routine to include a walk down the dirt road that wrapped through the trees from the end of their driveway. She would make the short trek past five other houses on the street (all spaced far apart and hidden from direct sight by a thicket of trees). All these homes backed onto a small inlet of the lake; she would curve around the bend past them and then cut into a trail just before the dirt road turned to concrete, and follow that through the thicket of trees, trying to separate herself from civilization. Sometimes she passed by other people, but after a brief smile or "good morning" they went on their way.

She was not so lucky on this particular morning. As Cara approached the fifth and final house on her path, the one that sat more or less directly across the small lake from the one they'd claimed as their own, she saw a bright red Mercedes pulling out of the driveway and slowing to a stop across her path. The woman driving looked heavily middle-aged despite the thick amounts of make-up she wore to hide this. Her hair was dyed a fake and unnatural blonde, but it was styled out with elegant flow. She flashed a wide and polished smile at Cara upon seeing her, eyes popping slightly.

"Hello there!" the woman beamed.

"Hello," Cara said cautiously back as she took a few steps closer, unaccustomed to such warm greetings from strangers.

"You're the girl who's been staying at the Nadeau place across from ours, right?" It was posed as a question but felt more like a statement to Cara.

"Ah...yeah that's right, me and my dad are staying there," Cara said. She didn't want to reveal too much to this woman, but if anyone were keeping an eye on the place they would have seen Logan on the porch from time to time.

"When we'd spoken to Bill and Natalie last they'd mentioned it was a couple family friends staying at their place, but hadn't given much more detail past that," the woman said. The implication Cara took from this being that she had called the Nadeau's to ask about the strangers she'd seen at their cottage. Cara wasn't happy to have someone around, watching closely. "Well I had seen you out on the dock from time to time and passing by our place, but hadn't gotten a chance to say hello yet," the woman rambled on. She stuck her hand out the car window, nails sharp and red as the vehicle. "I'm Meredith Johnson." Cara took her hand and shook.

"Cara...Talbot," she said, stealing the name from an old monster movie (The Wolfman this time), as was often her habit on the road.

"You might also see my husband Ted around from time to time. He likes to take his boat out on the water some evenings to do a bit of fishing, though the man has barely caught a tadpole in his life." She laughed heartily at her own wit. Cara tried her best to grin along. "We're normally up here more often in the summer, but the colours around this time of year are so wonderful, we have to make the trip at least a few times before the end of the year, and there's nothing quite like that cozy cottage feel of a warm fire in your living room during a light snowfall over the lake. But I'm getting ahead of myself; hopefully we still have at least another month of warm weather before we get into all that.

"So what is it that brought you and your father up this time of year? Natalie neglected to say over the phone, not that one ever really needs a reason to come up and enjoy the fresh air in the country." She was polite about it, but there was a hunger in her questions that made Cara worry. She doubted this highly polished woman could be a secret agent sent out by the Imperial Cult to track them down, yet still caution seemed appropriate. Cara had often found though that keeping a lie closest to the truth was usually the simplest way to stop unwarranted questions.

"My father's not in the best health right now, and best thing we can do for him is keep him somewhere comfortable and stress-free. He likes the country air and the scenery up here so the Nadeau's offered that we spend a bit of time at their place." Meredith gave a deeply concerned sigh and took Cara's hand once more, squeezing it tight.

"I'm so sorry to hear that dear. Teddy had gone through a rough time a few years ago now. And you know what I think? I think spending time up here really did him some good and helped him beat it." Meredith let go of Cara's hand after one more good squeeze. She glanced down the road that she had half pulled onto. "Well I've certainly kept you long enough. If you ever feel like joining us for dinner, Ted and I would be happy to have you and your father over. Stop by anytime, Cara."

"Will do," Cara said, forcing a grin. Meredith gave her a big sympathetic smile as she took her foot off the break and rolled out onto the road. Cara had decided she didn't dislike Meredith Johnson. She was annoying for sure, but Cara doubted there were any bad intentions there. Either way she was now looking forward to sharing the story of her encounter with Daniel later.

Cara continued her walk and soon cut into the thin trail that led to the nearest forest. She certainly couldn't argue with Meredith, the colours of the trees were incredible. The reds and oranges were at their richest point, and nothing had started to die off yet. Every now and then a strong breeze would rustle its way along the path and a beautiful shimmering shower of these leaves would rain down around her.

The path fed into a wider trail that appeared well used, but Cara chose to steer clear of this and wander away from the trail and into the thickets. Occasionally she heard voices in the distance, back in the direction of the main trail, but after a half hour of walking, ducking under branches and hopping over logs, she felt safely removed from civilization.

Maybe it was selfish of her, to find an escape, she thought, but she knew the world was spinning so far out of control, so far beyond a point where they could ever set things right, that sometimes it was all she could do not to scream. Out amongst these trees, these lush colours, it just didn't matter. Things could pause, if only for a moment.

And a short moment was all she ever seemed to be given. The brief and truly good moments in her life always ended up punctuated by some new terror. Her first love with Angel; that joyous and brief period of her life was put to a halt by the murder of her mom and step-dad. The short few years where her, Logan, Bethany, Jack, had begun to feel like a family, stomped on by that oh-so-common monster known as cancer. And her time with Daniel? What would put a stop to that? She doubted there was going to be a happy ending there.

But even the smaller moments in Cara's life, like standing there in the trees with nothing but the chip-chip of birds and the light rustle of leaves as they danced to the earth, were inevitably ruined by the evils always at work in the world. It started with a familiar throb in her chest. Her inhales of the fresh fall air no longer felt refreshing, but tight and sharp. She knew what was around, just not where yet.

Cara followed the discomfort in her chest, moving through the forest, following whichever direction caused the tightness to worsen, like some twisted game of Marco Polo. She could still breathe, but it felt like she couldn't. She thought of Logan, the way he described his own pain as the edema spread, constricting his lungs and turning his body against itself. Cara was getting closer now.

And there it was. Normally she would start sensing a demon miles away, only subtly at first, but from far away. This one had hit her like a rock, heavy and hadn't let up. Somehow it had snuck up on her, under the radar. She saw a figure in the distance, hunched over, red and blackened. It looked like this person had just come lurching out of a fire. Their skin was raw, peeled down to the muscle, with patchy bits of flesh burnt up to a crisp. 

Cara began wondering what horrid things the demon possessing this person had made them do. Had they been forced to cover themselves in gasoline and set themselves on fire, and then after put it out, all so the demon could revel in their suffering a little longer? She could imagine a demon doing so; she had seen them do worse before. Cara wouldn't be able to save this person, but she could ease their passing and make sure the demon was sent back to Hell.

As she approached though, the truth of the situation became clear to her, and it was far more frightening. Because there was no man, no one who was possessed. Cara understood as she saw the blurred edges of the figure. This was a demon and nothing else, trying to force its way into their world. She thought of the last demon she had dealt with, of that naked figure that had withered into dust on Susan McDermott's bedroom floor. This one cried in pain the same way, but did not disintegrate. It was getting stronger.

As Cara watched, its legs (which stopped just below the knees; a fact she had missed at a distance due to the shrubs) were growing longer, tendon by tendon. Other parts of it were doing the same, and the burnt flesh was growing like a fungus over more of the muscles. The impossibility of all this washed past her. There had been a lot of "impossible" in the past couple months. This demon was managing to create a new body for itself, and she knew she had to stop it. Cara was no expert exorcist like Jack, but she knew demons and she knew their language.

"Demon, look at me!" she commanded in a strong voice. She spoke in English, but when the demon responded it was in the guttural, infernal speak of the damned, of a thing no longer human, and so far removed from one that its language was now solely that of a mad beast. But she understood. It wasn't about hearing the words, but feeling them, like she felt the tightness across her chest.

"YOU...LOOK...AT...ME" it spat out, keeping its back turned. Each word came out slowly, it was forming a body to speak with, but things weren't fully formed yet.

"I am looking. You look weak. No body you form will last in this world. You'll dissolve to nothing shortly. And even if you don't, well I'll kill you myself."

"WHERE...ARE...WE?" the demon asked.

"Doesn't matter to you, its some place you should not be. You need to go back to Hell. I'll send you if you don't go willingly." Cara stepped closer, intending to grab the figure and toss it to the ground. If it was taking on material form, then it could be hurt. But a sound stopped her, a chilling sound coming from the figure. She didn't understand what it was at first since it came out in sharp painful rasps, but then she realized that the demon was laughing.

"WHERE...ARE...YOU...CARA?" She stopped cold.

"How do you know me?" she asked, her voice faltering from the commanding tone she'd started with.

"I...SEEEE...YOU...CARA" the demon hissed and finally turned its head to look her way. The muscles around its face were barely formed and its neck gave a loud crack as it turned. Blood soaked teeth filled a lipless mouth, cheek bones pushed past the thin strands of muscles along its face, and burnt flesh peppered its forehead. But most concerning, Cara looked into its eyes, the endless black pits that only belonged to demons. And she saw something familiar. Something from many years ago. Her heart caught.

"Name yourself, demon," Cara said, voice now quivering.

"WATCHER," it said in one thick strenuous breath. "WE...WATCH...WE...SEE" It paused, paused and waited for a few more muscles to form around its jaw, enough to twist up into a smile. "WE...WATCH...YOU...CARA." The thing then gave a heavy sigh and collapsed to its knees. Smoke rose from its back and the muscled, burnt figure began to evaporate, much faster than it had formed. The figure collapsed into the leaves on the forest floor and went still. In another moment the demon was gone, with only a burnt patch of leaves left behind it.